Kalyan Singh may be back in BJP next week

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh is likely to rejoin the BJP next week. Sources in the BJP said the decks for his homecoming have been cleared and the only hitch is the inauspicious Pitrupaksha

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh is likely to rejoin the BJP next week. Sources in the BJP said the decks for his homecoming have been cleared and the only hitch is the inauspicious Pitrupaksha,which will be over on Monday.

Singh may rejoin the party either in Delhi or at Debai in Bulandshahr,where his son Rajvir lost the last Assembly election,a BJP leader said.

Debai could be the venue because it is the assembly constituency of Rajvir and the ongoing Uma Bharti-led Ganga Samagra Yatra is reaching there on October 18. Uma was in favour of Singhs return to the BJP, the leader said.

Last week,his Jan Kranti Party (Rashtravadi) had authorised Rajvir to take the final decision on rejoing the BJP.

Sources said the workers had asked Singh to join any party except the Congress,the SP and the BSP. That left only the BJP.

On whether he had made up his mind,Rajvir said,Nothing has been decided yet. However,sources said neither the BJP nor the Kalyan camp wanted to make an announcement in Pitrupaksha.

Sources said the BJP is keen to bring back Singh ahead of the Lok Sabha election as a pro-Hindutva OBC face could help it win 10-odd seats in UP. Singh was its national vice-president when he left the BJP in January 2009.

A BJP leader said party national secretaries Santosh Gangwar and Ashok Pradhan had lost in the 2009 general election in Bareilly and Bulandshahr because Singh had campaigned against them.

Similarly,Singh had campaigned in favour of SP candidate in Bulandshahr when the BJP ignored his opinion and gave the ticket to Ashok Pradhan there. Bulandshahr has more than two lakh voters of Singhs Lodh Rajput community.